It is real and I find I am making compromises on settings to avoid the shutter speeds involved. Would recommend taking a SD card to Teds (you are an Aussie?) and taking some shots at 1/60th to 1/200th with a display camera before buying. Check out on decent monitor at home (you will need lightroom 5 or later or Sony's raw converter to process their raw files)The detail possible when shake avoided is stunning.BTW Metabones adaptor for canon is AF (VERY slow with some lenses) but I think Nikon one is MF only.BTW also wondering if discounting (not just in Australia) is related to improved shock free model possibly to be announced at Photokina next month?---That is a great price---- good luck with your decision

Oh and there was a firmware update but it had no affect on the A7R shock. Firmware did help A7 which uses electronic first curtain. Apparently this is not possible with shutter hardware on A7R.